Every month or so I receive a newsletter by email from someone because I once did a bit of business with the company he works for.   I got one today.  This guy is called John McCarthy.  Whenever I see Mr M's  latest communication in my Inbox it makes me smile, because of another John McCarthy.   More than that, it makes me think about what it means to be human.

Some years ago, I read a fantastic book by an Irishman called Brian Keenan.  It was called "An Evil Cradling" and it described Brian's experience of being held as a hostage in Beirut for nearly five years.  I can't recommend this book highly enough.  It is beautifully written and describes an incredible journey which Brian made during this time to the very depths of his own psyche.  It also refers extensively to the powerful bond which he forged with his fellow hostage, John McCarthy, and how they managed to help one another through their period of imprisonment.

Here is some footage from AlJazeera showing Brian Keenan revisiting Lebanon in 2007.   He touches on the meltdown of his old persona which he experienced while being held in solitary confinement.  I love his serenity and lack of rancour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFuWkAYIca0

I was so struck by Brian Keenan's book that I went on to read both John McCarthy's account of his experience ("Some Other Rainbow," written with his then girlfriend, Jill Morrell, who campaigned tirelessly to keep the plight of the hostages in the media gaze) and a book which Brian and John  wrote about a trip that they took together to Chile ("Between Extremes: A Journey beyond Imagination").   These are also terrific books.

One of the very striking things is that Brian and John were wildly different people, who would probably not have got on well had they met in "real life."   Keenan is the passionate, imaginative, highly intellectual Irish guy.    McCarthy is the archetypal cool, laconic Englishman who liked to appear not to take anything too seriously.   However, their relationship was extraordinary.  They loved each other to pieces and it is proably fair to say that they saved one another's lives.

Here is John McCarthy speaking about the beginning of his capitivity:

http://www.jla.co.uk/show-video/uploads/video/McCarthyJohn?i=%2Fuploads%2Fimages%2FMcCarthyJohnVT.jpg

and finally here is  a very moving interview he gave about his experiences:

http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j26/finding-freedom.asp?page=2

The interview isn't long and it's well worth reading in full.  However, this strikes me as being a key passage:

"[INTERVIEWER]:  In your book you describe how the phrase “choose joy” became a motif between yourself and Brian—a way that you would uplift each other during the hardest times. How did you “choose joy” in the midst of such desperate circumstances?

McCARTHY: I think it largely came out of the realization of the simple wonder of being alive. It often came in the simple celebration, with Brian, of our shared humanity. This experience—of sharing life with somebody, even in the dire extremes of that form of captivity—was in itself a reason to live. Even observing the humanity of the guards, although at times it was a cruel humanity, had a huge value. And there was a joy in seeing how one could choose to be undaunted in the most frustrating and frightening times—something so simple, pure, and alive! The purpose of living, in that extreme circumstance, was simply to live, to experience, and to share what one could. So sometimes, when we should have been weeping or gibbering in the corner with fear and despair, we would be rolling around the floor in hysterical laughter—and it wasn't neurotic, mad laughter, but a sheer delight in being human beings thinking ourselves out of the box. "